Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

December 13, 2011

Yesterday on my way home, I almost fell asleep standing up. It was only Monday.

There was a point earlier this year that waking up at 4:30 became normal, but it soon became 4:45, 5:00, 5:30, 6-oh-shiz-I’m late! With Ironman training officially underway, I want to readjust my body to that point where a 4:30 wakeup call is just a regular day in the books. Don’t get me wrong, that means I’m in bed by 9:30 and I realize this makes me an old, old woman, with a sad, sad weekday social life.

For the time being, getting used to waking up at this ungodly hour has been painful and I wanted to share a few of the tricks that I’m implementing to ensure that I’m up and out the door by 4:50.

Use Emoticons – I’m a six-year-old trapped in a 20-something body. Thus, when I learned that you can title your iPhone alarms and put emoticons next to it, you better believe that I made a special Ironman alarm clock. That way, when I groggily curse at my phone for waking me up, I’m reminded of my goal and why I need to get my ass out of bed.

Use A Suggestive Alarm Song – Beeps bore me and do nothing for my get-outta-bed motivation. Thus, I use Wham!’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go as my alarm clock song of choice. The first thing I hear every morning is, “WAKE ME UP!” It’s painfully annoying but drives home the point pretty clearly.

Don’t judge my ringtone list.

Prep For Tomorrow – This one is probably something your mom has been telling you since elementary school and it pains me to say this, but she was right. Pick out your clothes (work and gym), pack your gym bag, pack your lunch and have it all bundled up and ready to go. Done.

Small Dogs – The funny thing about dogs is that they get used to a routine and will hold you to it. Get a small one that isn’t big enough to jump on the bed and she’ll jump and jump and jump and jump (with her collar bell jingle jangling the entire time) until you give in and wake-up. It’s fool-proof really.

Cranky Husbands – Get yourself a husband that doesn’t have to wake-up until 6:45 and when he hears you hit snooze and has to listed to WHAM! three times in a matter of 10 minutes, he’ll give you a swift kick in the side or a gentle, “Turn that damn thing off.”

What time do you wake-up everyday? What are your get out of bed tricks?

Comments

Oh I remember on freshman trips in college (outdoor trips that happened before the start of the year for bonding..) the trip leaders went around blaring the song Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go at some ungodly hour to wake us up! Fond memories…

this is great! and, i love your ringtones!!! i really struggle with waking up early in the AM. but it helps that i am a homebody and don’t mind missing out on the regular twenty something weekday events. the hard part for me is going to bed early when i just want to stay up and hang out with my boyfriend after a long day of work/grad school. i am taking some notes from you!

I’m definitely going to have to still some of these tricks! Though, no matter how hard I try my small dogs don’t seem to catch onto any routine but their own. They would sleep in until 8am every morning if they could. Good luck setting up your routine! I’m training for my first 50 miler in June and I need to jump on the routine bandwagon as well!

Ohhh I hear ya! If I don’t have an AM workout, I can sleep til 6:45. But I am often up by 4:30 to run. And once I am fully into half ironman training next year, I suspect there will be many more pre-5am wake-ups in my routine. I need to get myself an iPhone and a small dog STAT.

My morning alarm is the Glee Mashup of “Halo” and “Walkin’ on Sunshine”. I’m not ashamed. I used to wake up to U2’s “It’s a Beautiful Day” I think you have to give yourself every tool to start the day right, even if it’s a cheesy song 🙂

Hehehe! That was me this morning at 4:30am! I rush to get out of bed before the tiny pup and husband wake up. The pup b/c then I don’t have to waste time taking him out to do his business and the husband b/c then he’s a grump all day. 🙂

When I have to run before work, I’m a 4:30-er too. Its brutal, but for me, I just don’t make it an option. I’mm still grumble when I have to get up, and not be thrilled about it – but if it’s not a choice, than my ass HAS to get out of bed!

That’s amazing you can get up that early! Try as I might I cannot get out of bed before 6:50am. I realize this would be luxurious to most people, but it’s STILL too early to me! Once I’m up, I’m up and ready to be productive, it’s just the act of GETTING up that totally kills me!

Even marathon training, I’m much happier running 8-9 miles after work than before. I just can’t do it!

Mornings and I have been getting along for years now, but some days it is just hard to get up. I have started getting up at 430am and those can be killers after 4 days in a row. i try to let myself sleep in every once in a while to help rejuvenate myself.

Wake me up before you go go is a fav song of mine and usually on my running mixes. I normally get up at 6am but if I am running before work I get up at 4:45. My only trick is one I stole from ChicRunner, I leave my iPod on the nightstand. When the alarm goes off I grab the ipod and put it inmy ears and blast music. Hard to go back to sleep then and it doesn’t wake anyone else up. Win Win!

You are my hero for getting up that early. I have the same cranky husband motivation that gets sick of hearing my snooze button. LOVE your alarm clock idea. I did that for Boston and it helped. Now I just need to think of a word to put on my alarm clock. Maybe Chocolate.

That’s so impressive! I’m definitely an evening runner– my energy tends to peak around 6 pm! One of my goals for 2012, however, is to learn how to run in the morning– maybe I’ll employ some of your tricks 🙂

ugh, i struggle to get up at 5:15 a couple times a week! 4:30 is crazy impressive! i’m with you though, i’ve gotta get my body used to both early early morning workouts and also double days. better enjoy my extra rest now!

I’m supppposed to get up at 5:15. But I usually tap snooze a few too many times and jump up at 5:45 and run around like a crazy women to make it out the door for my carpool at 6:15. I don’t get nearly enough sleep – hoping to get a DVR one of these days so I can be a little less obsessed with catching late night TV shows.